Knowing you rely on firearms to save your life should a life-or-death situation ever occur would you load your G-19 with a weak FMJ low-velocity round or the round you had the most confidence would end the attack most efficiently?

I don't know why anyone would download his/her shotgun with a less effective round than is currently available.

I have both #1 and #4 buckshot and wouldn't use anything less than #4 for self-defense.

#6 or even 7-1/2 bird shot is just perfect for 3-4 pound pheasants. Hit 'em in the back flying away at about 20 yards and it will knock them down, but won't tear up the breast meat. About half the time you still have to break their neck.

I have had a pheasant fly straight at me, and at about 7 -10 yards, it pretty much fell apart in midair.

Excellent on 3-4 pound birds.

For 200 pound bad guys? Better than nothing, but very limited range. Just not betting my life on it.

For what the guy in the gunblast vid is talking about... bad guy in the hallway and a concern of overpenetration... I can see his point, but again, it's not for me.

Being from Arkansas I've killed several whitetail deer with squirrel shot when I was a kid.

For HD I would pass on the low brass birdshot but if you are concerned about overpenetration of BS in your house, trailer, apartment, condo, etc and high brass #6,5 or 4 shot will do the trick at short distances, like the ones you will deal with inside your home.

At 20' a high brass squirrel shot is still a solid mass even out of a cylinder bore and will punch through stuff just like BS but will break up while going through a standard sheetrocked 2x4 wall.

I have a Win 1300 Defender for HD and even though the tube holds 7- 2 3/4" shells I only load it with 5 plus one in the chamber. I also have a 5rd shell holder on the buttstock that's loaded with 3 "OOO" and two 3" 1 1/4oz slugs.

For the "what if" guy....... Load you shotgun with 1 round of squirrel shot in the chamber and 5 rds of SS in the tube and 3 rounds of BS and 2 slugs in the shell holder. Or place a SS in the chamber, 2 BS in the tube, then 3 SS and BS and slugs in the shell holder.

Since I live with just myself, the Wife, a dog and a cat I'm not too worried about shooting someone at the other end of the house and my nearest neighbor is 300yds away I use BS.

When I lived in a condo with my daughter I used the SS/BS combo that I posted.

If you blast a BG at 15' with a 2 3/4" high brass #4 squirrel shot load in his COM he will be dead by the time you can walk over to his corpse.

It just goes to show how ignorant both the military and Law Enforcement agencies are. They keep using buckshot after all these years. I can't even figure out why buckshot was even invented. The answer was always birdshot.

It just goes to show how ignorant both the military and Law Enforcement agencies are. They keep using buckshot after all these years. I can't even figure out why buckshot was even invented. The answer was always birdshot.

Yes, we should always use what the military uses, without questioning why.

That's why we only ever carry FMJ in our pistols, because the military does what is best.

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The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Yes, we should always use what the military uses, without questioning why.

That's why we only ever carry FMJ in our pistols, because the military does what is best.

Well, when they invent hollow point buckshot it might become the same kind of issue for the military as FMJ but in the meantime Law Enforcement agencies are not so constricted and they still seem to prefer buckshot.

Birshot is for birds. You may get suitable results using a full choke & large birdshot @ close range but open choke riot guns, nope. With a spread of 1" per yard, that is a 5-6" pattern on a guys chest @ 20ft. If he is wearing a heavy leather coat, he is not suffering much from shot #6 or smaller.
I have tested this on a beef ribcage @ 20ft. The #6 shot did NOT penetrate thru the back side of the ribcage covered w/ 2 layers of denim. So serious SD/HD use starts w/ #4 buckshot & larger. Anything else is a risk you can take, but not me. If it's bad enough fo rme to be going to a SG, it's bad enough that the fight needs to stop right now. The ribcage on the left was hit W/ #4 buck, open choke 870. The right was #6 shot.

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"Given adequate penetration, a larger diameter bullet will have an edge in wounding effectiveness. It will damage a blood vessel the smaller projectile barely misses. The larger permanent cavity may lead to faster blood loss. Although such an edge clearly exists, its significance cannot be quantified".

Well, when they invent hollow point buckshot it might become the same kind of issue for the military as FMJ but in the meantime Law Enforcement agencies are not so constricted and they still seem to prefer buckshot.

That they do.

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The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Sorry if I came off as "birdshot is useless". It's not, but there is better options out there, and that I don't think is disputable....

I haven't read anyone here yet advocating using birdshot over other loads. However, sometimes you have to dance with the girl you bring. In a perfect world you can load this or that and carry a particular firearm. However, I know from experience that this isn't a perfect world and when it hits the fan you have to use what you have at that time. The point of this entire thread is that birdshot will definitely do more damage than some of the uninformed actually realize. Until you have seen the damage then don't discount it doing the job in certain circumstances. That birdshot load may be the only fat girl left at the dance. You may prefer the long haired blonde but she may not be there when the music starts.

Of course if the option is birdshot or an unloaded gun I'm taking the birdshot. That goes without saying.

Spinoff: What if the S were to HTF and you had a shotgun with birdshot...let's say a #6 target load...vs your most carried Glock loaded with a quality JHP. Which would you rather have in your hands when the zombies come through the door?

__________________
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Being from Arkansas I've killed several whitetail deer with squirrel shot when I was a kid.

For HD I would pass on the low brass birdshot but if you are concerned about overpenetration of BS in your house, trailer, apartment, condo, etc and high brass #6,5 or 4 shot will do the trick at short distances, like the ones you will deal with inside your home.

At 20' a high brass squirrel shot is still a solid mass even out of a cylinder bore and will punch through stuff just like BS but will break up while going through a standard sheetrocked 2x4 wall.

I have a Win 1300 Defender for HD and even though the tube holds 7- 2 3/4" shells I only load it with 5 plus one in the chamber. I also have a 5rd shell holder on the buttstock that's loaded with 3 "OOO" and two 3" 1 1/4oz slugs.

For the "what if" guy....... Load you shotgun with 1 round of squirrel shot in the chamber and 5 rds of SS in the tube and 3 rounds of BS and 2 slugs in the shell holder. Or place a SS in the chamber, 2 BS in the tube, then 3 SS and BS and slugs in the shell holder.

Since I live with just myself, the Wife, a dog and a cat I'm not too worried about shooting someone at the other end of the house and my nearest neighbor is 300yds away I use BS.

When I lived in a condo with my daughter I used the SS/BS combo that I posted.

If you blast a BG at 15' with a 2 3/4" high brass #4 squirrel shot load in his COM he will be dead by the time you can walk over to his corpse.